A committee made up of Microsoft rivals is diving into the European Commission …

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A few days ago, we reported on a lawsuit filed by Tangent Computer against Microsoft, alleging the same monopolistic activity that the software maker has been accused of for years. Our take on that particular suit was not that Microsoft has never done anything wrong, but so many other legal cases against them have failed to have any real effect that the Tangent issue is unlikely to become a tipping point.

That's not necessarily the case with current happenings in the European Union. On the heels of the European Commission's €2 million per day displeasure with Microsoft's response to the EU antitrust ruling, a group of rival companies have filed a complaint against the software manufacturer, documenting continued monopolistic practices.

The claim gives voice to long standing fears that Microsoft is merely spinning out the legal process with the European Union until it can move the goalposts with the introduction of new versions of Windows and surrounding applications. A different operating system with more advanced APIs would effectively make the EU existing ruling of academic interest only.

The complaint, which was filed by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), remains officially under wraps, but a lawyer for ECIS did leak a few details. Among the issues raised were incompatibilities between Microsoft's Office applications and other suites; XAML, Microsoft's upcoming WinFX UI markup language which the ECIS alleges could be an assault on the HTML web standard; and the ever-popular bundling issue, most specifically as it relates to digital rights management (DRM). Many of these issues are a cross-Atlantic echo of the Tangent allegations. ECIS counts among its members IBM, Nokia, Oracle, Real Networks, and Corel.

Microsoft is obviously concerned about the continuing potential for huge fines, and some are beginning to wonder if the EC is truly playing fair with the company. In light of that, MS has chosen to take its case to the public by posting nearly 250 pages of documentation to its web site, including reports and copies of communications, along with a 78-page response the the EC's Statement of Objections.

While MS is responding actively and publicly, the EC seems to be taking its time to make sure all its ducks are in a row. As their researchers study the new allegations, the door is being left open for further sanctions against the company, along with the possibility of a new review of the situation in light of the ECIS complaint.

The Commission said it had received the complaint and would "study it carefully". Should Brussels find Ecis's allegations merited, it will have to open a new antitrust investigation against Microsoft. Ecis' main concern is that Microsoft is seeking to create an environment where a growing number of web-based applications functions only with computers and servers driven by Windows.

If the statements of ECIS' own lawyer are correct, several of the items in the complaint refer to future activities that Microsoft may engage in, such as attempting to leverage Windows Vista and turn XAML into a common web page component or popularize its own brand of DRM. In fact, the only thing specifically mentioned so far that refers to a past activity on MS' part is the incompatibility of Office with non-MS applications. Ironically, that is something they are working to fix.

Nevertheless, given their current troubled relationship with Microsoft, the EC is likely to consider the ECIS complaint very carefully. If nothing else, the legal groundwork is being laid in such a manner that Microsoft will be encouraged to tread cautiously around the aforementioned issues. In fact, that may be all the ECIS companies were looking for in the first place.